The first photo of 2009: the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33), Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), and Alnitak, the left star in Orion's belt. Left of the Horsehead Nebula and red emission nebula IC 432 is NGC 2023, a reflection nebula.
Photo left is with darkest part of the background and stars at balanced RGB levels, giving a slightly yellow cast to the mid-tones. Photo right adds slightly more red and significantly more blue to both.
(Click on photos for larger versions)
December 29 & 30, 2008: NGC 2237 (Rosette Nebula), M31 (Andromeda), M45 (Pleiades) & NGC 2264 (Christmas Tree Cluster & Cone Nebula)
(Click on photos for larger versions)
Photo's taken in the back yard during 2 very cold nights, with Celestron Nexstar GPS on wedge, Hyperstar 3 & Canon 20Da, Lumicon Deep Sky filter; approximately 30 exposures per object from 30s to 300s. Calibrated & stacked in MaximDSLR, processed with Photoshop.
NGC 2237: 3300s @ ISO 1600, M31: 2640s @ ISO 1600, M45: 2460s @ ISO 1600, NGC 2264: 960s (30s exposures due to guider malfunction) @ ISO 1600.
December 29, 2008: M42, M43 & NGC 1977 (Orion & Running Man Nebula)
More than 60 minutes with the Hyperstar @ f2 on 11"Celestron GPS with wedge, Canon 20Da, Lumicon Deep Sky filter. Guided with Atik 16IC.
Various exposures from 15" @ ISO 200 (Trapezium area) to 240" @ ISO 1600 to capture detail in all areas without over exposing.
Photo's per exposure duration stacked in Maxim, layered and processed in Photoshop.
(Click on photos for larger versions)
September 25 - October 2, 2008: Mas Blanc, France (first results), NGC 6992, NGC 6960, NGC 7000. M33
(Click on photo for larger version)
All of the above with Canon 20Da on 11" Celestron Nexstar GPS with Hyperstar lens, f2, Lumicon Deep Sky filter.
NGC 6992 (Veil East): 17 exposures for a total of 2580 seconds, stacked in Maxim DL, with 2-star manual align (too many stars for auto-align!), lightly processed with Photoshop.
NGC 6960 (Veil West & part of Pickering's Triangle ): 640 seconds @ ISO 1600, Stacked in Maxim, processed with Photoshop. Unfortunately, high winds prevented a longer exposure.
NGC 7000 (North American Nebula): 8 exposures, total 1140s @ ISO 1600
M33: not the best photo because by the time I started on M33, the wind had picked up and I only got 560s of relatively stable exposures. However, for only 9 minutes, it's not too bad! 3 x 120s & 1 x 180s @ ISO 1600
Left: NGC 6960 (Veil West, different angle): 9 exposures, total 960s @ ISO 1600
Right: December 2, 2008, Moon, Venus & Jupiter, close conjunction at sunset. Canon 20Da & 70mm lens
August 17, 2008: Lunar & Solar Eclipse 
Nederlands
Following the Solar Eclipse of August 1st, a partial (81%) lunar eclipse was visible in Europe on August 16 & 17th. In the Netherlands, the weather was not good: misty and cloudy. The Moon rose partially eclipsed and the eclipse reached maximum around 23:11 on the 16th.
The quality of the photos from the first half of the eclipse was not great due to the weather. I had been fortunate to have seen the total solar eclipse in China just two weeks earlier. This was the first time to see two (nearly) total eclipses back to back. It struck me how the two eclipses were almost opposites: the solar eclipse of the setting Sun and the lunar eclipse of the rising Moon. I decided to make a composite of the two events (See photo at left; click photo for larger version with text; click here for version without text).
Solar eclipse photos as described below. Lunar eclipse taken with Canon 20Da and Stellarvue 80 on tripod. ISO 200, various exposures.
Partial Lunar Eclipse 16-17 August 2008
Click for enlargement with text Photo without text
August 1, 2008: Total eclipse in WeiXiZia, Yiwu, China
On August 1st, I had the chance to see a total solar eclipse from a rather exotic location along the Old Silk Road in the Gobi Desert in China. See http://www.wpshetgooi.nl/eclipse_2008.htm for more details. See below for a selection of my photos, most taken with my Canon 20Da, 300mm lens, f5,6, ISO 200. Click on photos for larger versions.
February 16, 2008: Solar Transit ISS & Atlantis Nederlands 
With high hopes, I arrived at the carefully-calculated center line of the February 16th solar transit of the ISS and shuttle Atlantis. Actually capturing a picture would be a challenge. The transit was only visible in a path about 4 km wide and the total time of the transit was only about one second. The chance of not being exactly in the right location or pressing the shutter at the wrong moment -- or too late -- was pretty large. And getting the focus right with no sun spots visible was another challenge. However, I was not prepared for my real problem: the solar filter for my Nexstar 5 was not in my equipment case! After setting everything up and doing a trial run, I had somehow left the filter behind.
Fortunately, there was Plan B: my Televue 60 & Canon 20Da on my Gitzo tripod, Mylar and rubber bands! Not great for resolution, but still happy to have captured 3 frames in about a half of a second. The solar arrays are visible as a bump to the right side of the ISS. Exposure 1/1250 @ ISO 100. And next time, better resolution ...and don't forget the filter! The gif animation below is made from my 3 frames (no. 1,2,4) and 3 frames (no. 3,5,6) from Mark van der Hum, taken at the same location, and shows nearly the entire transit.
January 25 - March 8, 2008: M42 Orion Nebula, M1 Crab Nebula, NGC 2770 & 2 supernovae, Comet Holmes & NGC1499
(click for larger versions)
After what seems like months of cloudy weather, I was finally able to do some astrophotography -- but not in the Netherlands and not with my own scopes! These pictures were made via a robotic telescope in the Canary Islands (see http:/www.slooh.com). With a membership, it is possible to reserve scope time and even save photos made through one of four telescopes. It is also possible to view what others are observing if you haven't reserved time yourself. The photos are only low-resolution jpg files, but by taking several photos and stacking them, the results are not all that bad. After two months of clouds, almost anything looks good! In addition, Slooh has dark skies, 14" scopes and SBIG cameras, which is slightly better than what I have in my backyard on all three counts.
M42 Orion: 5 Feb 08 20:22:32 UTC, Canary Islands Dome 2 Wide Field, 85mm f/5.6 Refractor, SBIG ST-2000XM CCD Camera, Sky Rating 5
M1 Crab Nebula: 2 x 5 minutes, 28 Jan & 4 Feb 08, Slooh Telescopes, Canary Islands Dome 1 High Mag, 14 inch f/6 Schmidt-Cassegrain, SBIG ST-10XME CCD Camera, Sky Rating 4
NGC 2770 met SN2007uy & SN2008D: Unusual to have two supernovae discovered within less than two weeks of each other. SN2007uy was discovered on December 31, 2007 & SN2008D on January 11th, 2008. NGC2770 is approximately 90 million light years from us, so these stars exploded a very long time ago, but they are "new" for us!
Taken on 2 - 4 Feb 08, Slooh Remote Telescopes, Canary Islands : 15 minutes, Dome 1 High Mag, 14 inch f/6 Schmidt-Cassegrain, SBIG ST-10XME CCD Camera, Sky Rating 4– 4.6; 10 minutes, 25 Jan 08, Dome 2 High Mag, 14 inch f/11 Schmidt-Cassegrain, SBIG ST-10XME CCD Camera, Sky Rating 3
Comet Holmes & the California Nebula (NGC 1499): 5 x 5 minutes on the wide-field camera in Dome 1. Too bad the resolution was so low, but it is a nice composition. Comet Holmes is still getting our attention!
November 17, 2007: Comet Holmes & M31 Andromeda
(click on photos for larger versions)
Comet Holmes is now too large to photograph with my 11" (280mm) Celestron Nexstar at Cassegrain focus! So two new methods were used for the above photos: left was taken with my Canon 20Da & 70mm Telelens and gives a good impression of the size of Holmes in comparison to the constellation of Perseus, lying behind it. 120 seconds total @ 5.6. The photo in the middle-left was taken with my 80mm Stellarvue Nighthawk ED, Canon 20Da, 6.3 focal reducer & Deep Sky filter. 180s total @ ISO 3200. Middle-right is a carefully scaled gif-animation which shows expansion of Comet Holmes between October 30th & November 17th. And since I was already set up with the Stellarvue 80, I did some quick, unguided shots of M31, 1200s total, of which 600s with Lumicon DeepSky filter, 6,3 focal reducer.
September 13, 2007: NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula, Sept. 7: NGC 6960 Veil Nebula West, Oct. 7: IC5146 Cocoon Nebula & Oct 14: M27
(click on photo for larger version)
Left: NGC 7635: Celestron 11" Nexstar GPS, 6,3 focal reducer, Canon 20Da, 60 minutes RGB & 30 minutes HA @ ISO 3200 & 1600, Lumicon Deep Sky filter. Atik 16 guide camera.
Middle Left: NGC 6960: Veil Nebula West; Celestron 11" Nexstar GPS, 6,3 focal reducer, Canon 20Da, 83 minutes total @ ISO 3200 & 1600, Lumicon Deep Sky filter. Atik 16 guide camera.
Middle Right: IC 5146: Cocoon Nebula; Meade 8" LX200R, 6,3 focal reducer, Canon 20Da, 50 minutes total @ ISO 3200, Lumicon Deep Sky filter. Atik 16 guide camera on Televue 60.
Right: M27: Dumbbell Nebula; Meade 8" LX200R, 6,3 focal reducer, Canon 20Da, 19 minutes total @ ISO 1600, Lumicon Deep Sky filter. Atik 16 guide camera on Televue 60.
October 13th: NGC 7008, October 14th: M13 Hercules Cluster , September 15th: M45, Pleiades Nederlands
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Left: NGC 7008: Planetary Nevel; Meade 8" LX200R, 6,3 focal reducer, Canon 20Da, 52 minutes total @ ISO 800 & 1600, Lumicon Deep Sky filter. Atik 16 guide camera on Televue 60. Click here voor wide-field photo of NGC 7008.
Middle: M13, Hercules Cluster: Globular Cluster, Meade 8" LX200R, 6,3 focal reducer, Canon 20Da, 22 minutes total @ ISO 800 & 1600, Lumicon Deep Sky filter. Atik 16 guide camera on Televue 60. Klik here voor wide-field photo of M13 including satelite galaxy.
Right: M45, Pleiades: Open Cluster; Meade 8" LX200R, 6,3 focal reducer, Canon 20Da, 37,5 minutes total @ ISO 800, Lumicon Deep Sky filter. Atik 16 guide camera on Televue 60.
August 11, 2007: First light, Meade 8" LX200R
Veil Nebula (East) with meteor M57 Ring Nebula N27 M33
(click on photo for larger version)
By the time I returned home from the tropics to the cloudy, wet, cold & light-polluted Netherlands, my Meade LX200R "travel scope" had arrived. "Travel" is defined loosely here, since this set up is not all that light weight. For me, though, it is a good compromise between the 11" Nexstar (which even I am not crazy enough to call a travel scope) and the 5", which is just a bit too small for what I want to do, both visually and photographically. After 10 years of Celestron, it felt a bit strange to order a Meade, but after much consideration, the "R" and mirror lock were the deciding factors (not to mention that this switch makes it somewhat easier to justify to family members that this really is something different...). The Televue 60 has moved to the Meade and the 11" has acquired a Stellarvue 80 Nighthawk Next Generation, for my more-or-less permanent set-up.
In a radical break with tradition, it was actually clear the night I brought the scope home, no moon and lots of meteors shooting around, one of which is captured in the photo of the Veil Nebula. These first pictures were taken quickly, primarily to get everything set up, and are unguided stacks totaling 11, 7.5, 6.5 and 15 minutes respectively, and taken with the Canon 20Da & 6.3 focal reducer. First impression: I was quite pleased with the scope, both visually and photographically, and both the "R" and mirror lock proved their worth. And now we wait for the next clear night to really give the set-up a work out...
July 22 - 31, 2007: Pemba & Mafia Islands, Tanzania First results Nexstar 5 on Losmandy!
M22 M8 Lagoon Nebula M20 Trifid NGC5139 Omega Centauri
(click on photo for larger version)
With high expectations (and far too much overweight baggage thanks to the telescope) we took off for Pemba & Mafia Islands, off the coast of Tanzania. These islands have not yet been discovered by mass-tourism and the skies were dark and the surroundings pleasant. Unfortunately, the effects of climate-change are being felt there too, and instead of having the driest month of the year, we were confronted with partly cloudy skies and rain nearly half of the two weeks we spent on the islands. Still, particularly on the first, moonless evenings, the skies were unbelievable, with so many stars that it was difficult to sort out the constellations, especially for someone who spends most of her time at 52N!
The next night, as I set up the scope, even more people appeared out of the darkness and sat down quietly on the grass to await a sign they could look through the scope. And so with a small sigh, I put aside my photography ambitions and turned the evenings into a tropical Star Party, complete with monkeys, lizards and other creatures of the night. A unique experience for all of us!
The second week was even more difficult, with clouds, a full moon and two days of a full-blown tropical storm. More for the record than anything else, I did get a quick second try at M22 and the Lagoon Nebula and -- very briefly -- M20. The improvement on the Lagoon compared to last years' pictures from Turkey with the same equipment is encouraging. I was amazed how long I could go, even at ISO 3200, before getting much vignetting. Omega Centauri was a feat of sheer determination, as it was done by full moon, just after sunset and close to the horizon, but was so impressive, that I couldn't leave without at least trying. Considering the circumstances, I am not too disappointed. Definitely worth a return trip, not just for the stars, but also for the snorkeling, white sandy beaches, wildlife, friendly people and delicious cuisine.
In the pictures at the top of this section, M22 appears to be as large as Omega Centauri. In this photo directly above, the two are shown in actual proportion to one another.
April 21 - 28 2007: M57 (Ring Nebula) & M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) Nederlands
Finally gave up on auto guiding via the auto guide port for now and tried the cable to the hand control. Much better and no unexpected slewing! I have ordered a new upgradeable hand control & programming cable so I can upgrade the motor control. The slewing was apparently a common problem with auto guiding.
Same set-up, Celestron Nexstar GPS 11" with 6.3 reducer, guiding via Televue 60 & ATIK 2HS. Click for larger versions. Click here for a wide-field version of M27.
The Ring Nebula is a stack of several exposures totaling 14 minutes. The Dumbbell is a stack totaling 15 minutes, with individual exposures up to two minutes. It was nearly Full Moon, but since clear days are not to be ignored (and can be months apart!) I am very encouraged by these first guided results.
April 14-15, 2007 M51 Whirlpool Galaxy & M101 Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 2903, NGC 2393 (Eskimo)
First results: M51 & M101 from my light-polluted backyard with my Celestron 11" GPS, 6.3 focal reducer, Canon 20Da, various exposures from 30 seconds to 90 seconds, ISO 800 - 3200, stacked with RegiStar, processed met Photoshop. Most without filter, some with Lumicon Deep Sky filter.
(click for enlargements)
I am still having trouble getting my Atik 2HS to work as a guide camera (scope slew when plugging into auto guider port), so am working with short exposures. I will hopefully have the problem sorted out soon.
In other news, I am sooooo happy with my flip mirror! It saves hours of popping around trying to find the faint fuzzies and get them centered.
We've had an exceptionally warm (and clear for a change) few days -- and they fell in the weekend, which nearly never happens. This is a great time for galaxies, so time for the next level of challenge in my astrophotography learning curve!
Soon to come: photos of the Leo Triplet and various other galaxies in the Leo/Coma Bernices area. (click to enlarge photos)
March 3-4, 2007 Lunar Eclipse
All the pictures are in color with no color corrections used. The 20Da is red-sensitive, so the middle row is slightly redder (but not much!) than the moon looked that night. I had hoped to take some high-resolution photos through one of the scopes, but didn't have time due to the good number of visitors we had. Next time!
De Gif-film is a strip of 35 consecutive pictures.
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